Seven years after a midnight mayday, divers say they found the F/V Mistress and apparent human remains within a stone’s throw of a Block Island wind turbine.
At a Glance
- Divers located a wreck believed to be the F/V Mistress in 92 feet of water near a Block Island turbine.
- Apparent human remains were documented at the site during the August 30 dive.
- Green Oceans asked the Department of the Interior to coordinate a new interagency probe and reopen the Coast Guard case.
- The vessel sank on January 1, 2019, after a distress call with three crew aboard.
What was found and where it sits
Green Oceans says a private dive team found a wreck matching the F/V Mistress roughly 50 feet from a Block Island Wind Farm turbine, at about 92 feet down. The group reported hull and gear features that line up with the missing trawler.
Divers also noted a set of apparent human remains at the site. The nonprofit released details with location context and urged federal review of safety around turbine clusters near mariners’ routes.
A fishing vessel that sank off the coast of Rhode Island on New Year's Day in 2019 with three men aboard has likely been located. https://t.co/ktDJj5eA9T
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 23, 2026
The proximity to the turbine matters because it frames the next step. Green Oceans asked whether wind farm layout or operations affected the sinking or the rescue response window and wants records checked. The group is not declaring a cause.
It is asking the government to study whether turbine spacing, lighting, cable charts, or maintenance traffic played any part. That request puts the site inside a larger policy debate over offshore wind and working waterfronts.
The night the Mistress vanished and the long gap after
The F/V Mistress sent a distress call shortly after midnight on January 1, 2019. Three men were aboard. The United States Coast Guard searched, recovered one crew member, and later classified the vessel and the two missing men as lost.
The ship itself did not turn up during the original search. That absence left a gap in the record that this new dive claims to close by tying a specific wreck to the old track line and loss date near Block Island.
Wrecks that go unfound for years are not rare when seas are rough, bottom terrain is complex, and search windows are short. Sediment can shift. Sonar can miss a low profile. Later surveys with focused grids and modern mapping often succeed where rapid searches did not.
That pattern explains why a closure can stand for years and then change when a private or academic team returns with time, tools, and a fresh mission plan.
What Green Oceans is asking the government to do now
Green Oceans formally asked the United States Department of the Interior to coordinate an interagency investigation and reopen the Coast Guard inquiry.
The group wants public release of records and a transparent look at the site, including whether turbine-area rules or maintenance traffic shaped search and rescue access that night.
The request also seeks a review of how mariners operate in waters dense with fixed towers and subsea cables, and whether safety zones and charts are clear enough.
F/V MISTRESS Shipwreck ‘Lost’ Near Block Island Located After Seven Yearshttps://t.co/ndLVSFdQZi@GreenOceansRI @WSJ @nypost @FoxNews @BBC @guardian @fishstewardship @ACKCurrent @TheStonesEG @mtkblb @njcoast_protect @Orsted @BITimes @thy_back_door @projo @NewBedfordLight
— Charlotte Licholai (@MrsLicholai) September 22, 2026
The Coast Guard has not issued a confirmation that the wreck is the Mistress, which is standard until an agency team inspects a site. One brief caveat is fair: identity of the remains awaits proper forensic work.
The big lift now belongs to authorities and medical examiners. They can document the wreck, secure the site, and, if possible, identify the remains so families can have answers grounded in lab results and chain-of-custody records.
Why this matters for policy and for families
Families want closure. Divers may have given them a path to it. Officials can now test whether the site matches the trawler by measurements, serial marks, and gear type.
They can also decide if wind farm proximity should change rules for lighting, exclusion zones, and access lanes. That is not about blaming technology.
It is about common sense seamanship and fair risk management, values that keep working boats safe while keeping energy projects honest about their footprint.
Sources:
cbsnews.com, businesswire.com, turnto10.com
